Tim Skubick: Meet Gene Clem, a non-shouting Tea Partier

There are two factions in the Tea Party movement: The shouters and the non-shouters." - Gene Clem

Gene Clem sometimes sounds like a moderate Republican, but he calls himself a Tea Partier.Courtesy Photo | WKAR.org

About 54 percent of the citizens in Michigan are not fond of the Tea Party, but if each T.P. member was like Gene Clem, the numbers would improve dramatically.

Gene who?

Mr. Clem is a charter member of the movement from the southwest side of the state and if you are looking for a wild-eyed, fire-breathing, sign-carrying radical from the far right, you have the wrong guy.

“There are two factions in the Tea Party movement,” Mr. Clem observes. “The shouters and the non-shouters.”

He would be in the latter group and actually views the “shouters” as those who “cause a lot of problems."

He figures they are more content sounding off and meeting at the country club once a month, while the non-shouters, he says, want to get things done.

Item: The Shouters want to recall senate GOP leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) because they don’t like the way he does his job. The mild-mannered Mr. Clem, applying a good dose of logic often missing in the fringe elements of any movement, tries to explain that the senator is term-limited and will be out office in two years.

“It shouldn’t be in the constitution,” he says, sounding like a moderate Republican. “It creates a super minority” to run things in the legislature. Which is exactly what the liberal/do-gooders are saying, too.

Item: The shouters are as anti-compromise as you can get. Mr. Clem sees compromise as a useful tool to get things accomplished.

As for the Mitt Romney candidacy, “We’re not crazy about Romney…He will not make that much change in Washington” if he’s elected.

But on this next point, he and the shouters concur: They all want to defeat Mr. Obama and they do like GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

So Mr.Clem has something in common with the "fringes" but breaks with them on some key issues. He better be careful: They may not invite him to the next Tea Party.